| Project by Dan Lyke | posted 139 days ago | 201 views | 0 times favorited | 9 comments |  |
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I had this as a blog series, but when I got back to the front page I saw myself featured there (I was the random lumberjock pick), so figured I should add this chair to my projects as well.
In our longer term plans, we want to build chairs for our dining table. My sweety and I like to work in the shop together, but I generally have a separate project going on because she doesn’t spend as much time in the shop as I do. So combining a need for a chair for my home office and me developing the skills to do some really nice chairs for the living room seemed like a good side project.
This one’s ¾” birch, I had my doubts when I started but the chair seems plenty sturdy. To get that “Maloof” look I’ll definitely have to go for thicker wood so that I can put in more curves, but as a “what I had lying around” experiment with no planning, I think this worked fairly well.
The curves are all cut with a jig saw, clamped together and cleaned up with a router. The splay from the front legs to the back is about 7°, that miter was cut with a Festool saw on a rail. The joints are all loose tenons made with the Domino,
The slats are laminated recurves with 3 layers, they flex a little bit in their sockets, which is fine, but they make noise, so my next version will probably glue them in. That top rail with the knot in it is mitered together for the angle, worked fairly well given that I was working from scrap and thought I should highlight the knot, but the seams are pretty obvious.
All in all it worked fairly well, and I’ll be doing more of them, though I do want to do carved seats for my next one.
-- Dan Lyke, Lagunitas California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke
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9 comments so far
Scott Bryan
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8398 posts in 256 days
posted 139 days ago
This is a nice chair. And I do think that you need to do more. After all you need a matched set. :)
Thanks for the post.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
tenontim
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795 posts in 179 days
posted 139 days ago
Nice. Kind of rustic and elegant all at the same time. The slats may flex and break the glue bond after awhile. You might want to try waxing the mortise and tenon before assembly, that should keep them from squeaking.
-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com
griff
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403 posts in 196 days
posted 138 days ago
great looking chair
-- Mike, Bruce Mississippi = Jack of many trades master of none
cajunpen
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5352 posts in 500 days
posted 138 days ago
Great looking chair.
-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/
DAN
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2810 posts in 417 days
posted 138 days ago
good looking chair … posting was fun tho read
-- ..... art for lifes sake
jeanmarc
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1533 posts in 151 days
posted 136 days ago
good work.beautiful chair
-- jeanmarc manosque france
motthunter
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1142 posts in 233 days
posted 135 days ago
nice style
-- making sawdust....
Nils
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104 posts in 299 days
posted 134 days ago
Dan – this is a great chair for “scrap”! Your blog series was very interesting as well. it sounds like you do all your work with hand power tools – no table saw, jointer, etc. Very impressive.
-- Nils Davis, Menlo Park, CA
Dan Lyke
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343 posts in 559 days
posted 134 days ago
Nils, yeah, I don’t have room for the big tools (the shop is a 1940s era single car garage), though I do have a benchtop planer. But a good circular saw with a guide can give a jointable edge, and with the right set of jigs can do nearly everything a table saw can do. Dadoes have to be cut with a router, and I still haven’t figured out how to do big cove cuts, but the only thing I really miss so far having is a monster bandsaw for resawing book matched pieces.
On the other hand I’ve got a large investment in tools generally that I’ve yet to work the limits of, so if I occasionally miss out on cutting my own veneers or bookmatching big slabs, I can wait.
-- Dan Lyke, Lagunitas California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke